The Fox and The Peacock
by Androfirestrike
Summary: The number three had always been Yumichika's favorite number. Ichimaru x Yumichika. One-shot. Shonen-ai. Crack. Birthday gift.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach or its characters as they belong to Tite Kubo. This also is a present for Fairy in a Pink Shirt.

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His smile had its way of snaking around your heart and pulling you down.

It was captivating, scary, terrifying and beautiful. And beauty was one of the only things that mattered to Ayasegawa Yumichika. He surrounded himself around beauty to fill the gaping hole in his heart where all his vanity lie. In his opinion, his own beauty needed to be surrounded by others with the same beautiful qualities. Ichimaru Gin was a beautiful quality he specifically wanted to be around him.

His smile had its way to make you feel like the most insignificant being in the world.

And that was because most people were. Most people were insignificant to the silver-haired fox. Yumichika, however, wasn't. He never felt insignificant, he always felt even more beautiful when he saw his smile, when he heard his voice, when he saw the feint glimmer of silver and when he saw the slightest hint of the other man's eyes opening. To Yumichika, people were always scared of Ichimaru because he was too pretty, just like how people always hated him because he was too beautiful.

It was only a matter of time before they met beautiful face to beautiful face.

It was a fairly normal day for Yumichika. It consisted of doing his usual amount of office work for his Captain in the morning, playing with Yachiru midday, and listening to Ikkaku as his friend told him a story about his latest _interesting_ battle that afternoon. The day was normal until his Captain came by with even more work for the reliable fifth seat, "Take these forms to division three."

And that was how it began.

The sun was setting as Yumichika walked to division three and by the time he finally got to Ichimaru's office, it was night. The most beautiful time of day, Yumichika thought as he carried the forms in his hand. He would have never liked to admit it, but he was nervous. He was nervous that Ichimaru wouldn't do anything and simply just take the papers and tell him to go away.

Yumichika hated being ignored above all else.

"Ayasegawa Yumichika, I presume?" Ichimaru asked as he sat at his desk. The room was dark and the two of them were the only people in it. If either of them believed in anything other than themselves, they might have believed it was fate. In truth, it was just carefully thought out planning on both parts.

As Yumichika handed the other man the forms, Ichimaru's grin seemed to double in size.

"Yes, sir. A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Yumichika said, waiting for the man to sign the documents so he could take them back. Actually, he was waiting for the other man to look up at him and grab him, kiss him or at least ask him something other than his name!

Ichimaru must have read his mind.

"It must be fun working for Zaraki, hm?" Ichimaru smiled as his hand gracefully slid and made smooth, black pen strokes on the papers. Yumichika sighed, running a hand through his hair as he poised himself to answer.

"Probably not as fun as working with you."

That line got an amused chuckle out of the silver-haired man which made Yumichika's apparent frown turn into a smile. It wasn't as prominent as Ichimaru's, but it was there as he watched as Ichimaru's smile waned, only to grow bigger than before. Maybe the silence was that which was killing the mood, Yumichika thought as he stood for another few minutes watching the other man's smile.

Or maybe the silence was only elevating the mood further?

"Ayasegawa, you like the number three, correct?" Ichimaru handed Yumichika the papers, his handwriting neat and slender. Yumichika shivered when he heard his voice. The number three had always been his favorite number because it was, in fact, the most beautiful. Yumichika had even chose to be fifth seat over fourth because the number five looked closer to the number three.

"It's the most beautiful number of them all."

Ichimaru got up out of his desk, his face looking directly at Yumichika. His smile was wide when he grabbed the other man's hand and leaned over the desk so they were only inches apart. Yumichika had never been so paralyzed in all his life. Ichimaru Gin had him in the palm of his hand, his heart was already his.

Or maybe he was only pulling him down to his level?

"And what would you define as beauty?" Ichimaru spoke. The word 'beauty' was curled around his tongue. Yumichika paused and thought about what to tell him, but only one thing came to his mind.

"You."

And Ichimaru frowned. That was when it hit Yumichika. His smile was not the most beautiful thing about Ichimaru Gin, it was his frown. His frown was so rare, that whenever he had the expression was when he looked his most gorgeous. It was because it was unexpected. It made his face look so strong, yet gentle at the same time. It made Yumichika wonder if that was the real reason Ichimaru always smiled. If that perhaps instead of scaring everyone, he was really scared of letting others see how miserable he felt.

So Yumichika gathered the courage to return that smile to Ichimaru's face.

He kissed him. It was playful at first, but then became more passionate as time went on. Eventually, Ichimaru pulled Yumichika onto his desk and Yumichika let go of the papers. Ichimaru's grin was back at its fullest when the two of them parted and Ichimaru reached to pull at his shihakusho while leaning down for another kiss.

Those two kisses led to many and the whole night was eventually filled with kisses and warm embraces.

Zaraki never got his papers after that night. The only thing he got was a fifth seat who would go wandering to third division ever so often. After all, the number three was Yumichika's _favorite_ number.

The two of them were like the fox and peacock of fable and legend.

The peacock walked around the forest, mocking all the birds around him. He spread his gorgeous tail and showed off for all the forest to see and the forest wound up hating him. While the peacock thought he was king, the forest thought he was an eyesore. Everyone hated the peacock save the lonely bear, rabid wolf, innocent kitten and sly fox.

And eventually the peacock pushed everyone away, except the sly fox.

The fox and peacock had one thing in common, their hatred of the creatures of the forest, although the peacock never would have guessed it at first for the fox played with the other animals as if he was one of them even though he kept on saying, "The other animals are foolish to ignore your beauty. They simply live day after day, their death looming closer to them every second, refusing to change." "True. Even the bear, wolf and kitten refused to acknowledge that," the peacock could only reply back.

The peacock never would have guessed the fox was actually a snake in disguise.

"Peacock, if you are a bird, why do you walk? Can you not fly into the heavens like all the other birds?" the snake in disguise pointed out the truth in a very harsh manner. He couldn't fly, or at least not that well. The only thing the peacock was good at doing was looking pretty.

"No, Mr. Snake, I cannot fly, but at least I don't have to disguise myself."

When Ichimaru left, it was of no surprise to Yumichika. He was just like the snake who disguised himself as a fox to fit in better with the other animals. Yumichika understood completely why Ichimaru left and why Ichimaru hated letting people see him frown. It was because his mask was slowly fading away and people were beginning to see him as the snake he actually was and that scared him.

Even though the peacock thought the snake himself was more beautiful than his fox façade.

Aizen saw through him completely. That man understood Ichimaru better than Yumichika ever could have hoped to. He envied Aizen, even though he didn't want to. Aizen had no beauty about him and Yumichika hated envying non-beautiful people. While Yumichika was a beautiful peacock, Aizen was a strong lion. Lions were made to be king moreover than peacocks. They had their beautiful manes to show off and everything.

Yumichika never really had a chance.

It may have been fate, or just careful planning on both parts, but Yumichika and Ichimaru enjoyed their parts as fox and peacock. The lion had to get in the way, though.

Ichimaru prided himself on being a fox, when actually he was nothing, but a snake in disguise

And Yumichika couldn't have thought of anyone more attractive.

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**A/N: **Birthday present for my friend, Fairy in a pink shirt. Happy birthday, girrrrrl! ILY. Anyways, she told me to do a fanfic for her birthday and I think she was joking when she suggested I do a fanfic with her two favorite Bleach guys, Gin and Yumi, but I actually thought about it and I think I made it work and sense I did fanart for another of my friends' birthdays, it was only fair to do something for her as well. I hope she likes this. I worked hard on it, even though I like my Gin with some Matsumoto and Yumi with either some Ikkaku or Shuhei. I've had MAJOR writer's block (and I've been drawing to make up for this) lately so this might suck when I look back on it later. I really should work on some stories. That fable, btw, is non-existent. I made it up. FYI, the lonely bear is Kenpachi, the rabid wolf is Ikkaku and the innocent kitten is Yachiru. So yeah, there was a stab at some major crack. Hope you liked it. Reviews would be nice. Andro Firestrike thinks you're cool.


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